Soil Test Based Fertilizer Recommendation for Wheat Production in Ethiopia: Review

Abstract

Ethiopia is the second largest wheat producer, in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Ethiopia farmers are facing challenges on the price, amount and type of fertilizers to be applied on their land. Because in Ethiopia blanket fertilizer recommendation are the only practice that have been in use for the past four decades in the country. Many farmers were using blanket type of fertilizer application which is not recommended based on soil test crop nutrient requirements. This blanket recommendation often fails to take into consideration differences in resource endowment (soil type, labor capacity, climate risk) or make allowances for dramatic changes in input/output price ratio, thereby discouraging farmers from fertilizer application. The prevailing blanket fertilizer recommendation rate is unaffordable for most smallholder farmers. Thus review paper therefore focused on recommended to use the soil test based fertilizer recommendation for wheat in Ethiopia. Soil test is one of the most known and exact methods for fertilizer recommendations for plants. Soil test based fertilize application of essential plant nutrients and in optimum quantity for a specific soil crop condition in alleviating the yield, quality and its attributes of wheat production is important. Data of different paper show that yield and yield components of wheat in soil test based fertilizer recommendation were higher than the blanket type of application. The finding of this review indicated that there are viable potentials for increasing the current wheat productivity through soil test based fertilizer recommendation practices. This shows that it is recommended to use the soil test based fertilizer recommendation in Ethiopia.